Net Neutrality - or Net Neutered?

Investors Business Daily has a detailed explanation of the doublespeak (or "Orwellian newspeak") of Net Neutrality, which IBD describes as a power grab. A coalition of 72 Blue Dog and Black Caucus Democrats strongly oppose. The editorial mentions of one of Net Neutrality's early advocates, Robert McChesney of the Washington group Free Press (more newspeak).

Adam Thierer, in the Technology Press, stated this of Mr. McChesney this year:

In his 2002 book Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle against Corporate Media with John Nichols of The Nation, McChesney argues that media reform efforts must begin with "the need to promote an understanding of the urgency to assert public control over the media." They go on to state that, "Our claim is simply that the media system produces vastly less of quality than it would if corporate and commercial pressures were lessened."

Meanwhile, James Lakely, "co-director of the Chicago-based Heartland Institute's Center on the Digital Economy and managing editor of InfoTech & Telecom News," has this to say about FCC Chairman Genachowski's advocacy of Net Neutrality:

"Genachowski is attempting to solve a problem that doesn't exist -- and will end up harming the vast majority of broadband and wireless consumers in the process. In today's ultracompetitive tech sector, market forces efficiently punish those who would impose ‘unfair' network practices and reward those who provide the best service. The FCC chairman would make a grave mistake if he replaced the swift judgment of millions of consumers with the dictates of a handful of uninformed and unaccountable bureaucrats.

The FCC should not claim for itself the power to determine what level of traffic management is ‘reasonable.' Free-market forces, with broadband consumers regulating with their wallets, answer such questions with more fairness and efficiency than any government bureaucrat."

If all this sounds like the Communist Manifesto, then read the work of another advocate of Net Neutrality, Evan Moglin, author of the Dot Communist Manifesto. You can read it here and yes, Karl (Marx, not Rove) would be proud.

Investors Business Daily has a detailed explanation of the doublespeak (or "Orwellian newspeak") of Net Neutrality, which IBD describes as a power grab. A coalition of 72 Blue Dog and Black Caucus Democrats strongly oppose. The editorial mentions of one of Net Neutrality's early advocates, Robert McChesney of the Washington group Free Press (more newspeak).

Adam Thierer, in the Technology Press, stated this of Mr. McChesney this year:

In his 2002 book Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle against Corporate Media with John Nichols of The Nation, McChesney argues that media reform efforts must begin with "the need to promote an understanding of the urgency to assert public control over the media." They go on to state that, "Our claim is simply that the media system produces vastly less of quality than it would if corporate and commercial pressures were lessened."

Meanwhile, James Lakely, "co-director of the Chicago-based Heartland Institute's Center on the Digital Economy and managing editor of InfoTech & Telecom News," has this to say about FCC Chairman Genachowski's advocacy of Net Neutrality:

"Genachowski is attempting to solve a problem that doesn't exist -- and will end up harming the vast majority of broadband and wireless consumers in the process. In today's ultracompetitive tech sector, market forces efficiently punish those who would impose ‘unfair' network practices and reward those who provide the best service. The FCC chairman would make a grave mistake if he replaced the swift judgment of millions of consumers with the dictates of a handful of uninformed and unaccountable bureaucrats.

The FCC should not claim for itself the power to determine what level of traffic management is ‘reasonable.' Free-market forces, with broadband consumers regulating with their wallets, answer such questions with more fairness and efficiency than any government bureaucrat."

If all this sounds like the Communist Manifesto, then read the work of another advocate of Net Neutrality, Evan Moglin, author of the Dot Communist Manifesto. You can read it here and yes, Karl (Marx, not Rove) would be proud.